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I feel I would have to officially hand in my 'nerd card' if I ever lost the urge to want to play a casual game of Magic: The Gathering with my friends. Sure, some people are going to invest themselves more in the collectable card game than others, but all it takes is a pre-made deck and players look…

The original Fairway Solitaire's blend of golf and cards was superb. Its simple take on solitaire was fun and immediate, while the golf elements encouraged you to minimise moves to come in under par.
Fairway Solitaire Blast retains the original's slick solitaire gameplay. Once again, your enjoyment of this will be dependent on your appreciation of solitaire. However, Blast’s streamlined gameplay kept us entertained as we attempted to clear each board as efficiently as possi…

Cartoon Network has taken the inspiration for Card Wars – Adventure Time from a card game seen in the cult cartoon. But, while its reflexive self-referencing makes our heads hurt, it manages to be a fairly decent customisable card game - with one major caveat.
The basics will be familiar to CCG fans: you use cards to summon creatures to fight for you, in an effort to reduce your opponent's health to zero.
The set up stage sees you laying terrain down across four lanes. Th…

When we first fired up Threes!, we admit that we weren't quite prepared for the charm offensive we were about to receive.
A quick tutorial shows you the basics. To play, you must swipe a group of tiles up, down, left, or right across a 4x4 grid. Pushing a 1 tile against a 2 tile creates a 3 tile. But from there tiles only combine with tiles bearing a matching number - 3 tiles combine with other 3 tiles into 6 tiles, 6s into 12s, and so on.
The aim of the game is to combine…

It's been a while since we've seen something from Popcap Games. Once having a reputation for casual yet fiercely addictive titles, many of which received praise from the mainstream gaming media, the company's output has been kind of sparse and quiet these last few years. Well it seems they're still with us having released Solitaire Blitz, a spin on the Windows gaming classic that emphasises social play and leaderboards. Yes, solitaire as a social game. The irony wasn't lost on us eithe…

I have to admit, I like the idea of a company taking the time to whet the appetite of their fans by providing a portable version of a title they're yet to release. We saw it back at the release of Mass Effect 3, and now we're seeing it again with Injustice: Gods Among Us from Warner Bros.
Of course any expectations of such a title being brought over in full, or at least as a complete brawler (albeit with a lowered roster ala Street Fighter's iOS releases) have been completely shot dow…

[Editor's Note: After further gameplay testing we've noted several points in the campaign where the AI is provided with what can only be described as severly imbalanced abilities and decks. These will act as roadblocks preventing progression, though the exact placing of said roadblocks will depend on your character and their deck/abilities. Sadly it comes down to luck as to whether you'll draw better than your opponent in these cases and it would be good to see the pogression evened ou…

When you think 'Penny Arcade', you'll more than likely think about the online comic started by 'Gabe and Tycho'. The brand has almost become an institution that defines gaming for the world - irreverent, opinionated, but always willing to share a fun time with all who seek it.
Based on the 2011 deck-building card game of the same name, 'Penny Arcade The Game: Gamers vs. Evil' brings together familiar elements of popular titles like Ascension and Dominion while also adding in a unique…

To understand Fluxx by Playdek and Looney Labs you have to understand 'madness' itself. If you reach back to the days of your youth, there are undoubtedly examples of play time with friends where 'playing' was all that mattered - rules existed in a basic sense, but they were ever-changing and evolving, almost at random. Fluxx embodies this free-spirited insanity to create a card game that is never the same game each time you play it; in fact it's entirely different from round to round,…

[This game was featured as the mini-review for the Friday News Wrap-Up for the 21st of September, 2012]
If you’ve played Hothead’s ‘Kard Combat’ then you’ll know what you’re in for with Three Donkeys’ iPhone and iPad title ‘Spectromancer’.
Players are handed a ‘deck’ comprised of an infinite amount of various cards, each requiring a certain amount of ‘mana’ to cast. Each turn you’ll earn a base amount…

Reiner Knizia is no small fish in the world of board games. Titles such as the Lord of the Rings and Ingenious are enjoyed world wide, while Lost Cities, a 2-player 60-card game has even proven to be popular enough to warrant an XBLA remake. Having previously converted Carcassonne to the iOS platform, The Coding Monkeys have taken it upon themselves to restore Lost Cities to its original design, bolstering it with individually scaling AI opponents and multiple asynchronous online games…

As much as I profess a love for board games, I must admit my preoccupation with video games keeps me out of the loop (as it were) when it comes to upcoming or popular titles. Nightfall, an aggressive deck-building card game from Alderac Entertainment Group, has gathered a strong following since its release last year - so it's no surprise to see Playdek, the iOS developer who brought out releases for Food Fight and Ascension, pushing this title out the door as well.
Those familiar with…

When starting up a game called Fairway Solitaire, the name suggests a lot. “OK”, you think. “Somehow they've combined solitaire with golf. This should be interesting”. Then you're hit with a cheerfully animated introduction about the age old war between golf and gophers before being thrown into a puzzle game with not only intriguing mechanics, but plenty of personality.
Not every course in this game (and there are many on offer) is eighteen holes, but the basic…

Poker has taken the world by storm for quite a few years or so and there are plenty excellent poker titles available for your iPhone. Words With Friends took Scrabble and made it into a very popular online game. Aspyr Media has decided to combine the two and this is how we have Poker Pals.
Yes, this is a turn based poker game played on a board. You play your hand, and then your opponent can use the hand you placed to create their own hand. Once the board starts filling, points can be…

Editor Note (Nov 9, 2011): One of the major weaknesses of Kard Combat when it was released was its lack of customization - something further exascerbated by only having a handful of mages to play with, limiting the overall amount of unique cards to try out. Instead of adding in deck manipulation, Hothead Games has opted to add more mages (albeit at a cost) while also adding in local hotseat (a boon for friends who don't own iDevices). We still feel the lack of customization makes…

On the one hand, the recent influx (if you can call it that) of Collectable Card Games (CCGs) and their related game-types is a boon to fans of card based gaming and those after something to play and pass around with friends. On the other hand (and this is more of a personal note) playing these sorts of games can become a bit of an obsession. Who better than tournament champions from Magic The Gathering to understand my woe and to help design Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer by Pl…